Remaining - Deep Southern Thailand - / 2019

Thailand is generally known as a Buddhist country, but approximately 80% of the population in Thailand’s three southern provinces (Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat) along the Malaysian border are Muslims. Southern Thailand was once ruled by Malay Islamic kingdom "Pattani Kingdom", but the three provinces were integrated into Thailand in the 20th century. In southern Thailand, which faced a crisis of culture, religion, and identity due to the rapid Thaiization policy, the independence and resistance movement became serious in the 1960s. After that, the movement became calm, but the conflict have reignited from around 2004, and over the next 10 years there have been more than 6,000 deaths and more than 10,000 injuries. Currently, the conflict seems to have calmed down in major cities of the region. At small villages in the mountainous area, however, young local men suspected of sporadic terrorist attacks and links to armed groups are have killed, arrested, or detained by security forces even now. There are some cases where the evidence and allegations themselves are suspicious, and the actual trial also may take up to four years. Originally poor people's lives in the region are even worse because of the sudden loss of their husbands and sons. The remaining families continue to wait for their return without knowing when they will be released.